


Horses change everything

by daughterofshadows



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Happy Percy, Is it a prompt? Is it a ficlet?, Percy and horses, What If...?, Who Knows?, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23561905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daughterofshadows/pseuds/daughterofshadows
Summary: What if Percy had only inherited Poseidon's power in one small part of his domain? What if Percy's only gift was a talent with horses?This is a story exploring how this small detail may have changed Percy's life.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Horses change everything

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a friend because there was this one idea that wouldn't let me go. I thought it would be just a prompt, but it got out of hand. Probably one of the few things the current crisis is good for. The boredom really gets my mind going!  
> Also, AO3 kept messing with the tags, so no clue if they are in the right order now. This is crossposted on my tumblr under the same name. If I ever figure out links, I'll put one here.

You know what I want to see?

A Percy Jackson, whose only gift is an incredible talent with horses. No freaky water-powers, no storms, no earthquakes, just horses.

One day, when he is little, Sally takes him to a farm. Maybe she is just getting fresh produce from the farmers market and the babysitter doesn't have time, maybe it's a treat for Percy, maybe it's an accident. Whatever the reason, there are horses, and Percy falls completely and utterly in love. Now, Sally doesn't really have the money to pay for riding lessons, but the owner knows potential when they see it and Percy? Percy has a lot of potential.

So instead, they set up a trade. Percy helps out in the stables and in return he gets riding lessons. And it works wonderfully. In more ways than one.

Because guess what happens when you spend a lot of time around horses? Right–you smell of them. And that neatly solves all of Sally's monster issues, both of the Greek and the human variety. Additionally, having so little of Poseidon's powers means less stress for Percy at school and so he never runs into Grover and never makes it to camp. There is never any need.

Instead, he becomes one of the youngest US equestrian champions in the Olympics. And maybe he doesn't win, but for a newcomer he does amazingly, because the horse and him? They are one.

The war against Kronos still happens and the prophecy fulfils itself without anyone from Camp or the gods ever meeting Percy. Because the only line in the prophecy about Percy is the first one, that he turns sixteen during the battle and that he sees the world in endless sleep. With Percy living in New York, it’s easily achieved without him ever fighting anything. Luke is the one who must make the choice to use the cursed blade, and he does. They never figure out how the prophecy is fulfilled.

Back to Percy. Even though he's winning all the tournaments, and just generally being really successful on the equestrian circuit, Sally is insistent Percy trains for a job. She doesn't necessarily mean college–after all she knows her son–, but she at least wants him to take an apprenticeship. The ranch owner decides to train him as successor and Percy picks up some credits in business and psychology at the community college. He invites a psychiatrist who works with horses as therapy animals to set up shop on the ranch. They met during classes.

And so, Percy grows into adulthood. He makes the Olympics again—this time he wins—and one day, he picks up some strays that turn up at the farm. They are demigods on the run, because the gods might not know he exists, but that doesn't mean the fates don't.

This is how he meets Annabeth and Chiron for the first time:

One of the kids knows about Camp, knows that it's a safe place, even though they don't know why. So, Percy at age 32 packs three kids into his old pick-up and drives them to Long Island.

There is a lot they don't know. Nobody told them that only half-bloods could walk through the gate or that the average demigod arrived in camp around the age of ten and dies before they make it to twenty.

To say Chiron is surprised when he sees them is an understatement. He knew of the kids, had even sent a satyr after them—the satyr will turn up a week later, in tears, thinking he failed them—but he didn't expect the man with windswept hair and eyes like the sea to bring them here. For a moment he thinks Poseidon stands before him. He fails to consider the implications of this, because this is when Annabeth turns up.

Now this Percy is a very different man from the one she met in the other world. This Percy never suffered Gabe's abuse, because the horses made the protection unnecessary. This Percy is quiet maybe, but confident and settled in a way that only growing up can achieve.

Annabeth is different, too. She fought in two wars, has lost friends and family; but there was never anyone to sooth her sharp edges, to remind her that there is a world outside her books; she survived where not many did and she did it mostly alone.

Both of them have been in relationships before. Maybe the thing with Luke went somewhere this time round for Annabeth, maybe Percy met Rachel at Goode. Maybe Percy and Rachel are still together, actually. I can see it in this world.

No matter their relationship status, when Percy and Annabeth meet, it is different. This isn't the meeting of an angry girl and a traumatised boy, or a girl desperate to prove herself and a boy without a clue what's going on.

This is a meeting of equals. And it's not love at first sight, it's not hate at first sight, but it has the potential to go either way. Not now though.

Because Percy only stays for as long as it takes the kids to get settled, makes sure they have his mobile number and the landline for good measure, smiles politely at Chiron and Annabeth and leaves. After all, he has an actual job that is more or less 24/7. And that is that. There are no conversations about gods to be had today.

Maybe sometime later Annabeth will ask the kids for his address and maybe she'll drive to the ranch to meet Percy again. Maybe this is when they fall in love, maybe they never will. Maybe Percy married Rachel and they have kids that draw on everything including the horses, who grow up with a mom who never stopped aggressively lobbying for social justice and who had to be bailed out of jail by her husband on more than one occasion; a dad who taught them to ride before they could walk and the language of horses before they could talk and two parents who aren't perfect, but always tell their kids that they can be whatever they want, who believe in them and support them, because they know the difficulties of growing up.

Maybe one day, Annabeth will be invited into this little family. Maybe she'll be that one aunt that Dad brought home one day who never left. Maybe she’ll be the third part of a triad. Who knows? The possibilities are endless.

And maybe, just maybe, they'll live happily ever after, because not all stories have to be about heroes. Maybe some of them can just be about a little boy who loved horses very much.

**Author's Note:**

> English isn't my first language and neither is it my beta's, so if you spot any weird phrases, do tell. This is in no way a complete fic, more of a very long prompt and there are lots of things that could be expanded upon, so:  
> If anyone wants to write a proper story about this (rather than this word vomit), go for it! Just let me know and link this story in, so others can find it, too.  
> Stay healthy, stay safe and stay sane!


End file.
